So much of Crazy Love has been about awareness. Awareness of our days.

I have a son and a daughter-in-law and they are both in their very early thirties.

Maybe I am blessed with a decent memory but I remember my early thirties [I think I do]. I was into career building…big time!

That is where they are now.

It is not a bad thing. A person wants to insure a future, build a retirement and find some security in generating a steady income.

But like a lot of us, they want more out of life.

They are both artists. They want to experience the joy of creativity along with their everyday goals.

That takes courage and awareness.

What can happen if we have the attitude that we have days and those days are stretching out in front of us and we just have to slog through life and live them? I again reference Annie Dillard “How we live our days…”

I have seen the woman who was scared to take a chance.

I have seen the man who was dead to life. He just does not care anymore. He lost his way and may never find it again. He is “dead tired”, every day

I have seen the worker who has had life beat out of him, too many people who use him, too many bitter encounters with the “system” and too many slammed doors.

I have seen the homeless person who is “gone”. He was in Chicago this past weekend. He was on the street. I mean lying on the street in the middle of traffic holding out his hand for some change. I stood in a crowd of well-to-do people on a street corner and in the middle of this crowd was a black woman carrying a cardboard sign saying “I am hungry.”

How does this happen?

People just living their days…and that is all.

I am afraid of that.

I am just being honest.

Can you be honest with yourself?

I don’t want to just live out my days and then I meet my end time and that is it.

I want my days to count.

Don’t you?

That joy of creativity that I mentioned earlier is open to all of us, if we strive for it.

Are there obstacles in our way?

You bet.

Day-to-day life can be hard on us. There is much pressure to insure a future, build a retirement and generate a steady income. We think of those things as the basics of life.

But they really aren’t…are they?

Where does real joy come from?

It is not from money…the kind we earn or even the kind the homeless person panhandles on the street.

It is from knowing that God can make all things possible. He is our hope.

Life is hard and then you die.

I have referenced him before, but I had a very negative friend who said that all the time. I wondered if that was his motto in life, his inspiration.

I hope not.

Matthew 19:26 is much more uplifting: “With God all things are possible.”

I get accused of being too optimistic. I have had friends and family members accuse me of being a little too Pollyanna.

I can’t seem to function any other way.

I don’t want to live with my motto “life is hard and then you die.”

I may not be chasing the “high” that my son and daughter-in-law get from the joy of creativity.

I am chasing the joy of awareness of my days.

I want them to count.

I know I won’t be here forever.

What time I am here, I don’t want to waste.

Pastor Chan has had so many messages that have resonated with me.

I am right with him as he references Annie Dillard “How we live our days …is how we live our lives.”